


Out of Isolation

by heroictype (swanreaper)



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-16
Updated: 2016-03-16
Packaged: 2018-05-27 02:59:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6266809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swanreaper/pseuds/heroictype
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two scenes, mutually exclusive. The first: a certain scientist was lonely, but he is not anymore. The second: Cecil has not been feeling well, and they talk about what to do. Never underestimate the power of science, and do not overestimate the power of hope. Post-episode 84.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Hey There

**Author's Note:**

> More or less what it says in the summary. As soon as I heard "Hey there, lonely boy" I knew I had to do something with it. This first chapter is more suggestive than anything, they don't go any further than kisses. I just couldn't let that slip by. These two are way too cute.

It was late, but the lights were still on in Carlos’ lab. The welcoming windows were black and reflective from the inside, the opposite of their daytime purpose, and the sign in them was different: “WE ARE CLOSED,” it said, apologetically. Although, really, it was perfectly reasonable for a science lab to be closed at that hour, and it would have been reasonable for any scientists to be sleeping.

But the lights were on inside, anyway, and Carlos was awake. He was in the back, checking off different sample stocks on a clipboard to make sure everything was in order for tomorrow and mumbling to himself.

A bell rang in the front of the lab. It took Carlos a minute to process this, but when he did, he set down the clipboard he was holding and picked up another.

_“Closing Tasks_ ,” read the header, and for that night, “ _Item #7: lock the door”_ had not been checked off. Oops. He’d meant to lock up after Nilanjana, the last person to leave other than him, but he’d been really busy calibrating the tension on the danger meters. He bit his lip, and considered his options.

He had no idea who this was, but if it was one of the mysterious entities Cecil was talking about, that wouldn’t be good. He could try to make a break for it, or lock the door and wait it out. Or, he could take the entire bundle of yardsticks in the corner and tie them together duct-tape, which would make them borderline invincible, and then make a run for it, but a slightly safer run than he would have had otherwise. 

Or it could be someone else entirely. There were all kinds of reasons for late night science. He should know, being a scientist. But it never hurt to be on the safe side. Except when it did, but that was usually emotional pain. He was just reaching for the tools when someone called out.

“Carlos? Are you here? Oh… Hmm. Maybe he stopped for a late night snack? Big Rico’s _does_ have that secret menu even when they aren’t open. Mm, pizza sounds good… Pizza with Carlos? Ooh, even better. Maybe I’ll check on that…”

Carlos laughed, and pulled open the door to the storage room. “I’m in here!”

“Ah!” Cecil’s hurried over. He placed a hand on the doorframe and leaned against it, adopting a cocky contrapposto. He treated Carlos to a crooked grin to complement his pose. “Hey there, _lonely boy_.”

Carlos hid his mouth behind the sleeve of his lab coat. “Oh, _gosh_. Hey there, my favorite blabbermouth.”

“Come on! You don’t get to say that when you gave me the words. You, Mr. Scientist, are a scoundrel. A science scoundrel.”

“Hey! The science part is important. However, I can’t say you’re being inaccurate.” Carlos grinned back, and poked Cecil in the chest, but lightly, bending his finger at the first knuckle. “Not that I mind seeing you, but why’d you come? You knew I was going to be late tonight, you didn’t have to come check on me.” He gently cupped Cecil’s cheek. “Is everything okay?”

“Ah, well, you know… I was thinking about Saturday, but I was also thinking about you. I just couldn’t bear the thought of you, alone in your lab, for all that time. My poor Carlos.”

“But I’ve got-”

Cecil cut him off, not with words, but he certainly put his mouth to good use. Carlos made an undefinable sound, mostly from the back of his throat, and his hands automatically clamped around his boyfriend’s back. Cecil broke the kiss, and rested his forehead against Carlos’.

“I just didn’t want you to be lonely, Carlos. And I thought, it’d be a shame if you had to wait so long… That’s what I was thinking about.”

“Oh… Oh. And how long have you been thinking about that?” Carlos asked. He felt a little dizzy, but in a good, “I can’t feel the ground right now, why do we even have gravity again” way.

“Since… earlier,” Cecil replied vaguely, then added, “Well, alright. Since a certain letter by a certain someone appeared in my inbox, and I recognized the handwriting before I even fully absorbed the message.”

“But… you read those like a week in advance - Oh.” Carlos nodded slowly, and then took Cecil’s arm and pulled him into the storage room. He closed the door firmly behind him. Cecil slipped further into the room around the scientist, and Carlos spun after him.

He threaded his fingers gently through the radio host’s hair - which, while perhaps not perfect, had a very satisfying texture, soft and freshly-washed - and kissed him again. Cecil offered up an encouraging hum, and found the wall behind his back, allowing Carlos to hold him there. This time, they stayed together until they were out of breath.

Cecil sighed softly when they parted this time, as if he could wish for nothing more in the world than greater lung capacity. He let his hands wander down the scientist’s back, and asked, “So, how is my lonely boy feeling now?”

“Oh. No. That’s no longer a scientifically accurate label… I mean… You’re such _great_ company, Ceec.”

Carlos let his lab coat fall onto the floor behind him, and pressed his body against Cecil’s again. It was going to be a long night.


	2. Applied Context

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's the other part. Sorry about updating rather oddly, I got pulled away in the middle of posting these. This one is more of a hurt/comfort-y deal, and some of it is based on a certain view of Cecil... But assuming he's particularly sensitive to what's going on in Night Vale, I don't think he'd feel too great after his encounter with the beagle.

Carlos flipped off the radio, and stared at it. Sometimes he wondered about attaching a camera to the device, so that Cecil could see the looks he gave it. Of course, Cecil was probably already out of the booth, and anyway that was not, scientifically speaking, how radios worked. Radios worked in Night Vale by the sheer power of necessity.

Still, it was frustrating sometimes, that Cecil did not tell him everything. It was frustrating, but he wasn’t mad at his boyfriend for it. The difference between speaking into an eyeless, voiceless microphone and speaking to someone you loved with all your heart was vast. Even endless.

Now, though, he had context. Why Cecil had been occasionally turning bloodless and resting an absentminded hand on his stomach, ever since he’d come back from seeing Janice and Steve a few days ago. Once, when they were snuggling and Cecil went stiff, the scientist brushed a hand over Cecil’s stomach, too. The skin was taut, as if Cecil were bloated and sick. Carlos stared at the ceiling and thought about a black, tar-like substance swimming in Cecil’s intestines.

Carlos had asked how he was doing, and Cecil had said a lot of things in response, usually to the effect of “he would definitely be fine, he was sure of it.”

But he had never told Carlos that he was, in that moment, fine. Now, Carlos knew that he hadn’t been since he’d seen the dog, and that he probably still wasn’t. A soft, wet snout poked into the scientist’s lap, and he couldn’t help quirking a smile.

“You’re a good dog, I know. Don’t worry.” He scratched the head above the snout. “Scientifically speaking, I think that all dogs are. I don’t think that’s really a dog…”

He heard the door open, and he stood up. Then, he stopped. He saw, in the space behind his eyes where irrationality lived, an image. Of himself, in the hallway, and something in front of him that was not Cecil, but a shadow that breathed.

Maybe something that had once been Cecil? Something coming down the hallway.

But that was silly, and scientifically unsound. He went to go say hi, and of course, there was Cecil, giving him a thin smile. “Good evening, my dearest listener.”

“Hi, Ceec,” he said. Mission accomplished. Stage one, anyway. He stepped forward to give Cecil a kiss on the cheek, and then just held him.

“Mm,” Cecil murmured, and delicately disentangled himself from the scientist. “Actually, I need to lie down for a minute.”

Carlos stepped back, and examined his boyfriend. He reached up, and pressed the back of his hand to Cecil’s forehead. He gasped faintly. “Oh, Ceec! You’ve got a fever again.” He hesitated. “And it’s not just an especially persistent stomach bug, is it? Well, I guess it’s good that you won’t need surgery to get it out, but…”

Cecil did not answer, not right away. He walked forward, heading to the bedroom, and when he had his back to Carlos, he said, “I’m not sure what it is, Carlos. But there’s barking outside sometimes. Can you hear it? It’s…”

Marconi met him as he entered the living room. Her tail wagged slightly, and she let out a greeting wuff. Cecil laughed.

“…It’s nothing like that!” He knelt down, and vigorously rubbed her back. In return, she gave him a faceful of sloppy dog kisses. “Yeah, you’re a good girl, aren’t you? Who’s a good girl? You are! Totally!”

“Honestly, I don’t even know if what you’re hearing is a dog. But maybe it’s using that form to get close to people? Dogs are very friendly and appealing to people.” Carlos voiced the theory quietly, and glanced at a pot of flowers where he knew some government agency or another had a microphone. There were so many to keep track of, and it wasn’t very scientific, so he didn’t bother much. Also, they weren’t supposed to know about them at all. 

And some things, they weren’t supposed to say. It was hard to tell.

Cecil looked more pointedly in the same direction, and then returned his attention to the dog. “This dog is so good, Carlos! Look how good she is!”

“Cecil,” Carlos said flatly, just bordering on stern. “Please tell me how you’re feeling.”

“Ahh, Carlos…” He gave Marconi a pat on the head. “I don’t know. There is a twisting in my stomach - this, similar to nausea, but deeper. Sometimes, the inside of my throat feels tight and full. You say I’ve got a fever, but I feel a chill. That is _what_ I feel.”

Carlos settled onto his knees beside Cecil, and wrapped an arm around his shoulder. “And this has been going on for a few days now? I knew you didn’t feel well, and frankly, I could tell it was worse than you were sharing, but I didn’t know…”

“I’m sorry. Like I said, I don’t know how I feel. I only know what, and that is… I will admit that I am concerned.” Cecil continued petting the dog, who had gone calm and quiet, detecting the change in the mood without understanding. There was solace in the innocence of an animal. She rested her head in his lap now.

He said, “I wanted to hope for… something. But apparently, it’s past time for that.”

“Oh, honey… I think that’s okay.”

“What?”

Carlos pressed his face against the other man’s and nuzzled, humming softly before he answered. He waited to speak until he felt Cecil’s body relax against him. “Hope isn’t a very active thing. Just because it’s too late to hope, doesn’t mean it’s too late to do something about it. And there’s no way I’m going to just let you… be sick like this, Ceec. Not when science can do something about it!”

Cecil swallowed, and tipped his head back against Carlos’. “Thank you. That means… so much. There is so much meaning in those words that I’m not entirely sure what to do with it.”

“For now? You can take it to bed with you. You said you needed to lie down.” The scientist stood up, stretched, and offered Cecil a hand to help the radio host to his feet. “I don’t know if it would just be alright, but… We’ll make it alright. We’ll do everything we can. I’ll use all the science I know, I promise.”

Cecil smiled, finally, faintly, and kissed Carlos on the cheek. “Then I don’t see how it can end badly. And I’ll… try to keep you in the loop more directly. So you let me know if you need any help, okay?”

“Sounds good to me!” Carlos agreed. 


End file.
